Brixworth and District Newsletter

Learn, laugh, live Registered Charity No 1178196 Issue 72 April 2021

Following two excellent articles in the last two editions of Third Age Matters (TAM), which I hope you all read and enjoyed, I thought it would be appropriate to introduce a rock corner into our Brixworth & District Newsletter, as we are all Never Too Old To Rock.

So, to kick off, I thought I would put together a short list of music I would recommend you listen to, if you are that way inclined.

The first of them is an oldie, but a goody from 1974, and in my humble opinion, a suitable challenger to the classic Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.

The guitar work in fantastic, ably supported by an excellent rhythm section, particularly the drums. The whole thing makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The track is “County Fair”, taken from the Joe Walsh album ‘So What’. In case Joe is not familiar to you, he was the front man with the US band The James Gang, who recorded some fine music in the late sixties – that magic decade – until he started his own band Joe Walsh & Barnstorm, their mega hit being “Rocky Mountain Way”. Joe Walsh later became a member of The Eagles.

Joe Walsh - County Fair - YouTube

The next features part of a studio set, that is the guitar solo from “Regret #9” from the 2015 Steven Wilson album ‘Hand Cannot Erase’. I imagine not many of you will be familiar with Steven Wilson, who was a member of the major Prog Rock band Porcupine Tree, mentioned in the latest TAM. Now, that is a band worth listening to. After a shaky start, when finding their feet so to speak, when the music was a bit lame, they later produced some tremendous prog rock album. I would particular recommend their live in-concert (2 DVD) and, to whet your appetite, I have included their amazing “Anesthetize” albeit 17 minutes long. But stick to it, because it’s well worth it.

Guthrie Govan - Regret #9 - Guitar Solo - YouTube

Porcupine Tree - Anesthetize - live (Tilburg, Netherlands) Full Song - YouTube

To slow things down a bit, but with a lot of emotion, is the next track by the English prog rock band Camel, heady by Andrew Latimer on guitar. “Ice” was the last track on their 1979 album ‘I Can See Your House From Here’ – strangely the same title given to a 1994 album by Pat Metheny & John Schofield, two guitar giants of the jazz world.

I have long been a fan of the music of Camel and was fortunate enough to see them, with fellow u3a member Denise Cowling of Maidwell, at Maidstone’s Rambling Man Music Festive in 1915 and again at the Royal Albert Hall in 1917. On both occasions, the very moving “Ice” was performed. Amazing.

Camel - "Ice" (Live) - YouTube

We close this edition with two more instrumental tunes. The first taken from the 2010 album ‘6 String Theory’ by Lee Ritenour. For this project, Lee called in a load of big-name guitarists to join him, with the track “68” written by Steve Lukather (lead guitar with the fabulous TOTO), and performed by him, Slash from Guns & Roses, Neal Schon from Journey, and of course Lee Ritenour, all masters of their art.

I had the thrill of seeing Steve Lukather perform the tune live at The Robin 2 in Bilston many years ago, when I met the man himself, having a met-and-greet VIP ticket, the umpteenth time I have seen him play, either with his own band, or with TOTO.

Steve Lukather & Lee Ritenour's "68" - Bing video

The last track will be very familiar to many music lovers of all genre of music, because it does what I like very much – a mix of classical music, with rock.

Patrick Rondat sprang to fame as the only guitarist to play with the all-keyboard band that was Jean Michel Jarre who, my two sons and I have seen on many occasions, and whose music forms a big part of my collection. Patrick is a Frenchman, who so impressed everyone who attended JMJ concerts, he eventually released albums in his own right, of which I have two. And it is from his third album, that he recorded in the studio, the tune he had play live at the JMJ outdoor gigs, including the Concert for Tolerance in Paris in 1993. That was when I first saw him, but on VHS. So, this is where Vivaldi gets electrifyingly good, while I still like the original as well, of course.

Patrick Rondat - Vivaldi Tribute - Live at "Le Rendez-Vous" (Martigues, France) - YouTube

Rock On, Tommy

Tell me what you think, just in case you want me to do something like this for the next newsletter, or perhaps not! Brian Collett